


my worlds are separated (before and after you)

by unbalancedlove



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Humor, Jealousy, Kissing, M/M, Misunderstandings, brought to you by donghyuck's real life love for superm mark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-13
Updated: 2020-12-13
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:40:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28039329
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unbalancedlove/pseuds/unbalancedlove
Summary: donghyuck has a crush on mark.(no, not that mark)
Relationships: Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Mark Lee
Comments: 31
Kudos: 736





	my worlds are separated (before and after you)

**Author's Note:**

> i went back and forth on whether or not to post this and finally decided to just do it 😭 i hope you guys like it!

“what is that?”

donghyuck doesn’t look up from the game he’s playing on his phone.“what is what?”

“the poster over your bed,” mark points a shaky finger. “what the hell is it doing there?”

it must be some kind of prank played by the dreamies, either that or he lost a game and is now enduring the punishment of having a giant superm mark poster in his room. his ears start to feel warm, did they _have_ to choose that picture of him spreading his legs?

mark hasn’t been home in a while, and he wonders what on earth could have gone down during the few weeks he spent in america with superm.

his best friend’s face twists to form a very strange smile, unlike anything he’s seen before. “oh, _that_. that’s my new crush.”

“you mean me.” this punishment must come with a script. “what bet did you lose?

“i wish this was just a bet,” johnny shudders. “if i have to listen to jopping one more fucking time i’m going to terminate my contract. it’s about to get worse now that you’re actually here.”

huh?

“it’s not a joke, hyung,” donghyuck says, offended. “and for the record, my crush isn’t mark hyung, it’s superm’s mark.”

“but that’s me,” mark insists, growing frustrated. 

“no hyung, you’re a loser. superm mark is different, it’s like the difference between peter parker and spider-man, jung yunoh and nct jaehyun.”

“excuse me?” jaehyun yells from the living room.

“you wouldn’t get it,” donghyuck brushes him off. as if falling for a version of him that– that doesn’t fucking exist is the most normal thing in the world.

“you like _me_ ,” he says again, face growing hotter. he only feels the weight of the three words after they spill out of his mouth. donghyuck, infuriatingly, does not seem to care. “you have a poster of me in your room.” 

donghyuck’s refusing to look at him. that coward. “hyung, can you leave? i would like some alone time with my crush.”

he rests his hand down on the hem of his shorts, and mark doesn’t understand until johnny screams _gross!_ and runs out of the room.

mark and donghyuck are weird.

not the two of them, not their friendship, but the tension that lingers every time their eyes meet, the electricity jolting through mark whenever he gets too close, donghyuck’s attempted kisses that feel just a split of a hair too charged to be passed off as a joke.

and now, he’s not sure what it is that donghyuck is doing, he just knows that he really, _really_ hates it.

donghyuck sits on the opposite end of the waiting room, rewatching his super car verse and rapping along in that exaggerated nasally voice that he uses to annoy people and mark is convinced is a weapon of mass destruction. a voice that, if held at gunpoint, he would admit is actually infuriatingly adorable. 

_but it’s me!_ a voice inside his head screams. no amount of vocal protest or convincing has swayed donghyuck, and he’s stuck watching him helplessly as he watches video after video, holds album unboxing parties with a renjun who suspiciously stashes away the yukhei photocards, and talks the hyungs’ ears off about his dream superm mark proposal.

 _why can’t it be me?_ a much, much smaller voice whines weakly. he pretends not to hear it.

it’s like a non verbal contract they’ve both signed, to tease each other mercilessly but also orbit around each other like binary stars fated to be together until eternity, but now donghyuck is violating it by turning his undivided attention to a version of mark that doesn’t exist.

he huffs and turns up the volume in his headphones to drown out the sound. there must be a word for that feeling. it’s right at the tip of his tongue.

“i don’t get him,” mark says. there is a pathetic edge to his voice. “no matter how hard i think about it i feel like it’s some sort of practical joke at my expense, because all it does is fucking piss me off.”

“you have to be fucking kidding me,” renjun says. he delicately slides his yukhei photocards into plastic sleeves and then spreads out his collection of colorful stickers, holding each one up to decide which of them are worthy to decorate yukhei’s face with the precision of a doctor performing brain surgery.

frankly, mark doesn’t get him either. but that’s a problem for another day.

“what is that supposed to mean?”

“you’re seriously wondering if he’s trying to get your attention? if this actually has to do with you in any way? if it was meant to elicit this exact weird and hostile response from you?”

“that doesn’t help me in any way.” mark just wanted someone to listen!

renjun stares at him for a long time, the longest he could get his attention away from his precious photo cards. “you are beyond help.”

“hyung! have you seen this?” donghyuck snuggles next to him at breakfast one morning, bolting out of his room and into the kitchen with a terrifying sense of purpose. he pushes his chair closer to mark’s and rests his head into the crook of his neck. his hair is a mess of curls that point in every direction, like a toy poodle puppy after a well deserved bath. 

mark forgets how to breathe for a few seconds.

donghyuck shoves his phone in his face, and he groans when he recognizes his own bright pink head. “i forgot this aired last night,” he says. his _as we wish_ segment is the last thing he wanted donghyuck to see, for reasons that are mysterious to him. “it's so fucking embarrassing.”

donghyuck stares at him pointedly. “you have nothing to be embarrassed about.”

mark feels a small, hopeful thump in his chest before the realization slowly downs on him. “because it’s not me.”

“precisely,” his best friend replies, grinning. “you’re finally catching on.”

they watch in silence, mark only resisting the urge to look away or shut his eyes because he refuses to show donghyuck any sort of weakness. donghyuck gets closer and closer, practically sitting on his lap when he sighs into his ear.

“i wish someone would do that to me.”

and a switch in mark’s head flips. his body fires up like a machine whirring to life, and his brain doesn’t fully process the words before they come spilling out of his mouth. “can you show me off for the rest of your life?”

he regrets it immediately, internally kicking himself and praying that donghyuck goes easy on him with the teasing.

but donghyuck stiffens, and his pupils shake, withdrawn from mark and fixated on the screen in his hand. he holds his breath and braces for an explosion of laughter that doesn’t come. instead, donghyuck’s face warms and he turns pink all over, his flushed ears and neck betraying his feelings.

“you’re not allowed to do that, hyung!” he stutters before running off. “you’ll never be him!”

oh. _oh._

mark checks himself out in the mirror next to the front door of their dorm.

their manager thought it was weird when he refused to wash off his makeup and change out of his stage outfit, but he also didn’t care enough to protest or ask any questions.

his hair is slicked back and he looks a little haggard after doing a full set at a music festival and then taking an uncomfortable nap at the back of their van. whatever, he decides. the messiness is part of the charm.

it might just be the stupidest plan he’s ever had, but mark knows that it would keep eating him up inside if he doesn't try. 

he just has to know.

(and being the embodiment of donghyuck’s fantasies is enough to send him over the edge.)

johnny is thankfully steering clear of their room tonight, he’s out with ten in what he vehemently denied was a date, despite it resembling a date in every way but name. 

mark finds donghyuck sitting up on his bed with some netflix show playing on his laptop. it must not be very good at holding his attention because he nods off a couple of times, only perking up when he notices mark.

“hyung?” he mumbles, rubbing his eyes as if to make sure he’s not in a dream. he looks so soft and warm and adorable, and mark almost regrets disturbing him just as he’s about to go to sleep. 

okay. fuck fuck fuck. how was he going to start this again?

“i-i’m not hyung,” he stumbles over his dumb superheroesque introduction. “i’m _mark_.”

donghyuck studies him carefully, really takes him in before he understands what’s going on. “uhm, hi?”

it’s immediately apparent that words aren’t either of their strong fortes at the moment, and so mark decides to skim over his cheesy, barebones script and moves on to the next phase.

he sits across from donghyuck. shutting the laptop off and pushing it to the edge of the bed a little more roughly than he normally would. his best effort to stay in character. mark stares at donghyuck, the longest he has without breaking eye contact and sees a darkness in his eyes he can only identify as pure lust.

has that been there all along? or are these looks reserved for this other mark?

these questions fade into the back of his mind, now fully occupied with the plushness of donghyuck’s lips.

one hand cupping donghyuck’s, the other caressing his cheek, just for a brief second before he closes in. 

he starts out shy, testing the waters, and is immediately drowned with a giant wave in return. donghyuck kisses him back with an enthusiasm that makes his heart soar, taking command and licking at his bottom lip, begging for access that he happily grants. 

donghyuck throws his arms around his neck and pulls him closer, as if shoving his tongue inside his mouth wasn’t close enough. and once their lips connect it’s really impossible to pull away, the warmth of donghyuck’s mouth feels as familiar and inviting as the rest of him. mark feels like he’s been doing it his entire life.

“finally,” he whispers against his mouth, and mark feels like a total idiot. 

“what does that mean?” he asks, just to be sure.

“you’re finally kissing me.”

“y-you mean m-me or-” he stops, frustrated, unable to untangle his thoughts. “i mean me as in mark hyung, n-not- you know?”

donghyuck stares at him in a way that only makes him feel more stupid. but not enough to stop him from pushing on.

“could it please be me?”

his pathetic pleading softens donghyuck, and he sighs. “i can’t believe the only way i could succeed in getting your attention by making you jealous of yourself.”

mark feels his face getting warmer, the only thing eclipsing his embarrassment is the happiness exploding inside of him. “you’re telling me you’re not increasingly more attracted to me when i look like this?”

it’s donghyuck’s turn to feel flustered, and mark files his reaction at the back of his mind, the first entry in his _how to catch your boyfriend off guard_ guide. “i-it might have unearthed stronger feelings i didn’t know existed.” he swiftly pushes mark against his headboard and crawls on top, finally claiming his throne. “anyway, i like you better when your mouth is shut.”

mark pouts.

“kidding,” he continues playfully.

their foreheads bump, and then they’re kissing again. donghyuck’s bolder their second time, if that’s even possibly. he loudly sighs in mark’s mouth to express his content, audibly guiding him to the spots he likes best. he straddles mark’s thigh and his shorts ride up, his hips moving in a slow but dirty rhythm and mark gulps when he realizes donghyuck is fully erect.

he hesitates before sliding his hands in, cupping the hardness through his boxers. donghyuck lets out a tiny, chocked noise from the back of his throat and shudders before mark’s fingers begin to feel damp.

they both freeze, looking at each other in mirrored terror. then, mark bites back a laugh. 

it might be the most flattering thing anyone has ever done to him. 

“don’t be embarrassed, you just got excited and it’s totally normal-”

“i’m not, this is only the first of many.” donghyuck cuts him off flatly, with a confidence that both excites mark and makes him want to crawl in a hole and die. it’s all a little too much at once.

“you sound so sure of yourself.”

“are you telling me that i’m wrong?” he challenges, awfully cocky for someone who just came from a few minutes of dry humping.

“you’re not.” mark grows quiet, and thinks about that despite how overwhelming it all is, his heart still yearns for more. “can you say it again, properly this time?”

“i like you, hyung.” donghyuck’s lips brush against his again. “it’s always you, hyung.”

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so much for reading! im super excited to hear your thoughts as always<33
> 
> you can also come talk to me on [cc](https://curiouscat.me/puppylove) and [twitter](https://twitter.com/ninetiesluv) ♡♡
> 
> (rom chapter 2 is coming soon)


End file.
